Thread: A BORDER BETWEEN FAMILIES

Bleeding Heart Alert & Anchor Baby Problem illustrated

A BORDER BETWEEN FAMILIES
New laws may deport illegal immigrants while leaving their American-born spouses and children in the U.S.
August 19, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY APRILL BRANDON - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/428/ ... 08541.html

Carrie Vargas of Hallettsville knows all too well that you can't choose who you fall in love with. So when the man of her dreams swept her off her feet, she married him even though he was an illegal immigrant.

Seven years and two children later, she's tired of her family being in limbo. Living in a two-bedroom apartment, the 28-year-old mother wants to buy a house with her husband in a nice neighborhood and settle down. But Vargas' dreams have been put on hold as she waits for the U.S. government to decide her family's fate.

"Our life is halted because of all this immigration reform. We can't buy a house right now or move on with our lives until we know if he is going to get sent back to Mexico," she said. "I can't change my decision, and I don't regret having kids with him, but this kind of thing really puts a strain on your marriage and your life."

Making only $7.25 an hour, Vargas said she would barely be able to take care of their kids, let alone afford house payments, without her husband's income. But more than that, her biggest worry is that her children will grow up without their father.

"If he gets deported for eight to 13 years, our 5-year-old daughter could be 18 by the time our family is reunited. My children are going to suffer, our family is going to be ripped apart, and no one in Congress seems to care," she said.

UP IN THE AIR

With immigration law reforms proposed by the Bush administration being killed by Congress on June 28, and political analysts saying the issue won't likely be resolved until after the 2008 election, Vargas and her family aren't the only ones hanging in limbo with the question of immigration reform still up in the air.

More than 3 million American-born children have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, and one in 10 American families have mixed immigration status, according to the Pew Center for Hispanic Research.

The combination of automatic birth-right citizenship and legal marriage between illegal immigrants and U.S. citizens complicates immigration reform, said Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. However, the plight these families are now finding themselves in is not something the government should have to fix, he said.

"These families created this situation themselves by breaking the law. There is this idea that if you break the law but then have children who are U.S. citizens, somehow it is everyone else's responsibility to rectify the situation," he said. "I don't know any other situation in which people break the law and have that same expectation."

Taking families into account

Rich Stolz, immigration team leader at the Center for Community Change in Washington, D.C., disagrees with Mehlman, saying it's ridiculous to expect family members to be apart for several years.

"In many of these cases, the illegal immigrants are the breadwinners of the family. It's really important to remember that even as much as some folks like to demonize undocumented immigrants, they have families, they are hard-working, and they are contributing to communities," he said.

Stolz added that his organization is supporting a bill introduced to Congress by U.S. Rep. José Serrano, D-N.Y., called the Child Citizen Protection Act, which would allow judges the discretion to put off or waive deportation orders and take into account the impact these orders will have on other family members.

"For some nationalities, they have to wait seven to 10 years to reunite with their families. In some cases, it takes 20 years. That is a ridiculous burden to place on families. The law is broken," he said.

Melhman says the solution lies in clear immigration policy and making serious efforts to go after employers who hire undocumented workers.

"I don't think anyone expects there's going to be a perfect answer to this. We'll always have illegal immigration to some degree. The question is to what degree?" he said.

The future is uncertain

Until then, the questions circling Vargas' mind about the future continue to swirl.

Will her husband be sent back to Mexico? If so, for how long? Will he miss his daughters growing up? Will she and her family be able to survive financially without her husband?

Will they ever get out of limbo?

"How can I move forward with my life? Right now we are just waiting," she said. "My life is never going to be complete, but I choose to be with him. I will stay with him and stick by him. I can't turn my back on him because he doesn't have his papers. But I'm dreading the day they send him back to Mexico."

Aprill Brandon is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6514 or abrandon@vicad.com, or comment on this story here.

Simple...you and the kids go back with

Problem solved

Making only $7.25 an hour, Vargas said she would barely be able to take care of their kids, let alone afford house payments, without her husband's income. But more than that, her biggest worry is that her children will grow up without their father.

"If he gets deported for eight to 13 years, our 5-year-old daughter could be 18 by the time our family is reunited. My children are going to suffer, our family is going to be ripped apart, and no one in Congress seems to care," she said.

Why do people put themselves in this position and then perpetually blame America for not declaring amnesty to solve the problems they create? At what point do they stop blaming us for their poor judgment/decisions, shut up and deal with the messes THEY DELIBERATELY CREATE?

That 1986 amnesty opened a can of worms that needs to be declared dead and it should be made clear that AMNESTY WILL NEVER AGAIN BE DECLARED. Its as if millions of people have come here and deliberately been waiting for amnesty with baited breath.

This woman and all of the Elvira's of the world need to stop pooting out babies knowing full well that they cannot provide for them without the relying on the US government to give them or their illegal alien anchor donors amnesty in return.

Parents need to take responsibility for themselves and their children. America does not owe illegals, their spouses, or their children anything. They knew if they had children that they would be separated from their american born children when the illegals had their children. The illegals could take their children with them when they are deported but that doesn't seem be part of the decision when talking about amnesty.

At least, if they are deported, they will be reunited with the family they left there. Many illegal males leave wives and children in their home countries and then hook up with a new wife in the US. So I don't know which set of children is crying out loudest.

Question: Just how do these people get married anyway? When I got married I had to present a birth certificate to get a marriage license. Did he bring his from Mexico or was his a forgery? If it was a forgery she isn't actually legally married is she? How do these people know who they are marrying? Sorry, this aspect just occurred to me.

Originally Posted by cvangel

Question: Just how do these people get married anyway? When I got married I had to present a birth certificate to get a marriage license. Did he bring his from Mexico or was his a forgery? If it was a forgery she isn't actually legally married is she? How do these people know who they are marrying? Sorry, this aspect just occurred to me.

Hi, cvangel. They DON'T get married. It is a really weird cultural thing in Mexico to just live together and have children. This has always struck me as strange coming from a predominantly Catholic country. Makes you wonder why the Catholic Church spends more time advocating for illegal aliens rather than teaching their flock about "spiritual unions," eh?

BTW, I used to live in SoCal (thus my username Ex_OC a.k.a. ex-Orange County) and worked with a lot of Latinos who told me about this cultural abnormality. I had to flee SoCal because of the illegal invasion. Good luck to you and those left behind!